Toy Story 5 soars to $71 million opening day, eyes record debut

Toy Story 5 gave theaters a late-June jolt, pulling in about $71 million on Friday alone and setting up a domestic opening weekend in the $160 million to $170 million range. The Disney-Pixar sequel played in 4,425 North American theaters, a footprint large enough to show that family franchises still have immediate reach even as streaming keeps pressuring the theatrical window.

The film’s Thursday previews totaled $17.5 million, the best preview haul ever for a Toy Story movie and the second-best preview ever for an animated release, trailing only Incredibles 2. Friday’s tally also landed just shy of the animated opening-day record set by Incredibles 2 at $71.2 million, a sign that Toy Story 5 was operating in rarefied company from its first hours in theaters.

The debut matters because it points to the kind of box-office power exhibitors want heading into the rest of the summer. Toy Story 5 was already projected to surpass Toy Story 4’s $120.9 million domestic start, and pre-release tracking had pushed expectations as high as $150 million to $175 million domestically, with one estimate pointing to a possible $275 million global launch. If those numbers hold, the movie would mark one of Pixar’s strongest theatrical openings in years and a reminder that a brand with four previous installments can still behave like an event.

The film’s opening also came with signs that the calendar helped. Some reporting said Juneteenth moviegoers gave attendance an extra lift, helping Disney and Pixar maximize the holiday-weekend frame. For studios, the takeaway is straightforward: a well-known animated sequel can still convert awareness into immediate ticket sales, even in a marketplace where families have more at-home options than ever.

Reviews have framed the film around Woody and Buzz Lightyear facing a tablet and broader tech-driven threats to childhood play, a premise that gives the franchise a timely digital-age edge. With Jessie, Woody and Buzz back in the center of the story, Toy Story 5 is being read not just as another sequel, but as a test of whether the biggest family franchises can still anchor theatrical moviegoing in 2026.